gorilla urbaine

The work "Gorilla Urbaine" is an ephemeral XXL mural of more than 2000 m2 produced from July 8 to 26, 2019 on the facade of the former Novotel hotel in Lyon (France). Presented as part of the Big Wall Zoo, it was visible a few months before the demolition of the building in January 2020. This fresco, proposed by the Zoo Art Show was offered by Vinci Immobilier in resonance with the event "Zoo art show 2 ".

The gorilla.

All gorilla species are now classified as endangered. If poaching is one of the major causes of the disappearance of gorillas, the destruction of their habitat is also a big factor. The original "soul" of the oldest forests in the world is disappearing, crushed by a dazed consumer society with no future. The gorilla has had to deal with deforestation which has long decimated its natural habitat. Timber harvesting, agriculture and even the reduction of their natural space are destroying Africa's main primary forests day after day.

Inspiration

For the attitude of the gorilla, I reinterpreted the last masterpiece of Leonardo da Vinci "Saint John the Baptist" in which the gesture of the hand which indicates the sky is also a biblical allusion because Saint John the Baptist announces the coming of Christ. But the smile of Saint John the Baptist is mocking, almost ironic, the same enigmatic smile of that of the Mona Lisa. The gorilla, in turn, points to the sky, as if to announce the coming of a huge tower ... with that same wry smile.

Approach

I draw my inspiration from nature. I include animals in my creations on the walls of cities, in order to question the place of animals in this increasingly urbanized world. Today, when the resources of our planet are dwindling, as humanity lives on credit, can we stop this ecological collapse? Are we able to question our consumption patterns? How to make this societal ecological issue, which conditions all the others, a priority issue? How can future generations take power by promoting biodiversity?

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